Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-20T04:24:25.851Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Investigation of climate change and history of lead deposition using soil archives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

T. Pampura*
Affiliation:
Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science RAS, Pushchino, Russia
V. Demkin
Affiliation:
Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science RAS, Pushchino, Russia
A. Probst
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle (ECOLAB), UMR 5245 CNRS/INP-ENSAT/UPS, France
*

Abstract

Our study focused on the investigation of climate change and the fate of lead in soils from the Low Volga region of Russia over 3500 years. We used a comparative analysis of the modern soils and palaeosols preserved under burial mounds, which date back to the Middle Ages and the Early Iron and Bronze Ages. A climate reconstruction showed periodic changes, with the most humid climate conditions occurring during Golden Horde period. However, we could not find any consistent changes in Pb concentration and profile distribution following the climate change. We observed a clear difference in Pb isotopic ratios between the lower and upper horizons both for the modern and buried profiles, reflecting the influence of atmospheric lead depositions. However, there is no statistically significant difference in Pb isotopic ratios between the upper horizons of buried and modern soils (except modern soils collected in the vicinity of a motorway). This means that either anthropogenic input due to long range air transport was insignificant, or that airborne anthropogenic lead and natural airborne lead have similar isotopic composition.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bindler, R., Brännvall, M.-L. and Renberg, I. (1999) Natural lead concentrations in pristine boreal forest soils and past pollution trends: a reference for critical load models. Environmental Science and Technology, 33, 3362–3367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demkin, V.A., Demkina, T.S., Borisov, A.V., Yakimov, A.S. and Sergatskov, I.V. (2004) Transformation of soils and environmental conditions in the semidesert Low Volga region within the past 4000 years. Eurasian Soil Science, 37, 230–241.Google Scholar
Gabler, H.-E. and Suckow, A. (2003) Chronology of anthropogenic heavy-metal fluxes and Pb isotopic ratios derived from radiometrically-dated lake sediments in Northern Germany. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 144, 243–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haack, U.K., Heinrichs, H., Gutsche, F.H. and Plessow, K. (2003) The isotopic composition of anthropogenic Pb in soil profiles of Northern Germany: evidence for pollutant Pb from a continent-wide mixing system. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 150, 113–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haack, U.K., Kienholz, B., Reimann, C. Schneider, J. and Stumpel, E.F. (2004) Isotopic composition of lead in moss and soil of the European Arctic. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ada, 68, 2613–2622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hong, S., Candelone, J.P., Patterson, C.C. and Boutron, C.F. (1996) History of ancient copper smelting pollution during Roman and Medieval times recorded in Greenland ice. Science, 272, 246–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klaminder, J., Bindler, R., Emteryd, O. and Renberg, I. (2005) Uptake and recycling of lead by boreal forest plants: quantitative estimates from a site in northern Sweden. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ada, 69, 2485–2496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mukai, H., Machida, T., Tanaka, A., Yelpatievskiy, P.V. and Uematsu, M. (2001) Lead isotope ratios in the urban air of eastern and central Russia. Atmospheric Environment, 35, 2783–2793.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renberg, I., Brannvall, M.-L., Bindler, R. and Emteryd, O. (2000) Atmospheric lead pollution history during four millennia (2000 BC to 2000 AD) in Sweden. Ambio, 29, 50–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renberg, I., Brannvall, M.-L., Bindler, R. and Emteryd, O. (2002) Stable lead isotopes and lake sediments — a useful combination for study of atmospheric lead pollution history. The Science of the Total Environment, 292, 45–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shotyk, W., Weiss, D., Kramers, J.D., Frei, R., Cheburkin, A.K, Gloor, M. and Reese, S. (2001) Geochemistry of the peat bog at Etang de la Gruere, Jura Mountains, Switzerland, and its record of atmospheric Pb and lithogenic trace metals (Sc, Ti, Y, Zr and REE) since 12,270 14C yr BP. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ada, 65, 2337–2360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, D., Shotyk, W. and Kempf, O. (1999) Archives of atmospheric lead pollution. Naturwissenschaften, 86, 262–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar